Skitterskulk
Skitterskulk is one of the sub-types of the Beast seeming. They are Changelings who have an affinity with flies, spiders, beetles, centipedes and other creepy crawlies. Their blessing is Impossible Counterpoise. Overview The Skitterskulks occupied the lower portion of the Arcadian food chain. Their lot was to hide in dark places or scurry under rocks when the monstrous predators of Faerie came hunting nearby. Skitterskulks are goblins that have grown too close to their pet beetles, snakewomen of reclusive nature, rat kings, and sun-blind worms. Upon return to the mortal world, Skitterskulks were among the quickest to find a way to live. A Skitterskulk is a valuable asset to a motley, able to contribute his skills in finding hiding places and scrounging food or tools. Skitterskulks come in a particularly wide variety, as they may develop traits that are alternately mammalian, reptilian, or even arthropod. Skitterskulks tend to be small, though, leaner than they were at the time of abduction and sometimes smaller than they should be. They’re comfortable crouching or squatting or wriggling through tight spaces. If arthropod in affinity, their skin might have small chitinous plates over the joints, or their eyes might be lidless and insectile. Some have vestigial bugs’ wings. Mammalian Skitterskulks tend toward long fingers and somewhat distended teeth, and sometimes have tails. Those with reptilian aspects may have scales, whether dull or brightly colored, and a lean, whip-like build. Durance Skitterskulks were treated like vermin, and so they became vermin. Some were deliberately made what they were, to serve better as a Gentry crone’s familiar or to amuse a feral catlike lord. Theirs was a particularly cruel durance, as their Keepers transformed the Skitterskulks precisely to bring them low or to laugh at their fear. Others became bestial by virtue of their environment. A concubine who failed to please or, worse, was unpleasantly resistant to her role may have found herself cast into the dark labyrinths below her Keeper’s palace. There she could survive only by scavenging like her fellow mice. Another escaped his bonds by gnawing through the weirdly braided gut, and had to live as a scavenger in a misshapen bog until he found a way home. By surviving these experiences, Skitterskulks developed the skills that would allow them to wriggle through the Thorns and find their way home. Folklore A number of Skitterskulks may have trickster aspects to them, particularly those with rat or spider aspects. The African Anansi and American Indian Iktomi are both spider-tricksters, and the kith blessing of Impossible Counterpoise would serve such a troublemaker well. In China, the rat won its place at the head of the zodiac through trickery (sometimes conveniently displacing the cat at the same time). The trickster aspect can be malevolent, as in the case of spider-people who seduce and then devour humans, or it can be benevolent. A Skitterskulk is also a strong possible extrapolation of the many stories of people being transformed into small, harmless, often unpleasant animals. They might be frog princes, great warriors transformed into mice or worms who ran afoul of a hag. Such transformations are typically a lesson in humility, one that the Skitterskulk might or might not have learned. Frailties Fear of bright lights, cannot eat liver, cannot refuse an offer of alcohol, must shed their skin on a full moon, bane of human saliva, must wear clothes of their own manufacture References *Changeling: The Lost Rulebook, p. 102 *Winter Masques, p. 64 Category:Beast (CTL) Category:Kith (CTL)